Type specimen

Hearing the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was a very great pleasure but I was surprised how I responded to it. We attended the Berlin Phil playing in their home concert hall, the Berliner Philharmonie. They were led by a guest conductor, Tugan Sikhiev, and pianist Nikolai Lugansky featured for the second work. They played Cesar Franck Le Chasseur Maudit (=The accused huntsman), Rachmaninov Variations on a theme of Paganini and Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade. The program listed all members of the orchestra rather than those playing on the night, and the number is large (11 basses listed, 6 played this performance). Sadly, our local product, principal bassist Matt McDonald, was not playing. If I counted right, the orchestra was 26 or 28 violins (first and seconds), 10 violas, 6 basses, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 6 brass (2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba), 6 percussion. Only about 12 players were women, mostly amongst the strings. The sound seemed great, not least from hall acoustics. We were seated above and just behind the violins. The audience sits right around, including some on choir benches. This was the Grosser Saal, but it was surprisingly intimate although seating 2,440. That intimacy was one surprise for me but the big one was just how little I felt this was outstanding or unusual. This just felt like what an orchestra is, or at least should be. I so often just sit and hear errors (not always reported here) and faults there are in most music. There were even some minor ones here (very minor). But what stunned me was how it felt just right, as an orchestra sounds (or should sound) like. Berlin Phil as a type specimen: the originally described example of its type. So tight, full bodied, balanced, playing at the service of melody and development, well timed, detailed, delicate with explosive hits and immediate decrescendos. More too, of course. All just as it should be, so I heard detail I’d not known of, and struggled for the quiet passages and bathed in the lush, loud lines, and wondered at the support from strings and the immediacy of their changes and the endless float of that long high harmonic from the solo first violin. And the pianist was equally a pleasure. I wondered how the conductor could, at times, be leading, but no doubt he was, sometimes spelling the beat but also sitting back on rubatos or just prompting entries or dynamics. This was all a huge pleasure but just as it should be. Is the Berlin Phil the type specimen of its species in a hall that may also be its own type specimen?

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performed Cesar Franck, Rachmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov in the Berliner Philharmonie under Tugan Sikhiev (conductor) with Nikolai Lugansky (piano).

A Mozart pair and jazz age Ravel

The Berlin Philharmonic was out of town on tour, but plenty of seats were available for the Rundfuk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra - East Berlin) in the Großer Saal at the Berliner Philharmonie. It didn’t seem a challenging program (Mozart-Ravel-Mozart) but I expected we would enjoy it and we did. The hall was from the ‘60s. It reminded us of the Sydney Opera House, but is wider rather than long and thus the experience is more intimate. It’s got similar hanging lighting and PA and stage a generous legroom. And a hydraulic lift that had us and several other audience members fascinated in the break.

This is not a large orchestra. I judge orchestra size by the number of double basses (large=8; smaller=4): this had four. The first Mozart was particularly small: some clarinets, horns and bassoons in addition to strings. The Ravel required more tonal colour and added brass and harp and percussion and piano. The second Mozart was larger than the first but smaller than Ravel. Right from the first notes of the first Mozart, we were in madly attractive and well-known territory. I wouldn’t have recognised all movements of each symphony, but the first movements of each were renowned and widely recognisable. The first was Symphony No 25 in G minor KV183. Apparently this is a Sturm und Drang style, a “proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music taking place from the late 1760s through the early 1780s, in which … subjectivity and … emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment” (Wikipedia). The musical implications are wide melodic leaps, sycopations, bursts of wind instruments and the minor key. I found the performance was nicely steady with stately tempo and strong dynamics. The Ravel was his Piano Concerto in G major and was a different beast. It started with jazz-like lines on piccolo then a devilish snap into trumpet then piano backing a Gershwin melody on oboe to open this jazzy work. Megan and I immediately thought of Gershwin and Rhapsody in blue. Apparently Ravel had recently toured the US and was keen on jazz syncopations and harmonies. Then on to three movements with sudden changes, string pads, jazz-folk harmonies, a few humourous trombone slides and story-telling variations. This is delightful jazz-age fusion. Pianist Kirill Gerstein played an encore solo piece and then the interval. We hung around with a batch of fellow tech-obsessed audience to watch the hydraulic lift take away the piano, then Mozart again with another eminently renowned theme, this time his Symphony No 40 in G minor KV550. I now learn that Mozart only wrote two symphonies in G minor and we heard them both this evening: the Little G Minor symphony (No 25) and the Great G Minor symphony (No 40). The Great is a work in four movements and scored for more instruments that the Little. I noted the first movements as insistent and could hear Beethoven in rolling, falling phrases. The second movement was a minuet in 6/8 with some darker complexion at times, querying and imploring. Wikipedia notes the use of hemiola: I felt quite uncomfortable this with this passage. The third movement is stately, bold 3/4 with unexpected changes and some interesting passages of odd lengths. The final movement was common time with sheets of 16th notes and an odd, open connecting fill in the middle. So, an informative and entertaining pairing of Mozart symphonies and a jazz-age Ravel. Very well enjoyed.

The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin was conducted by Marek Janowski in the Großer Saal at the Berliner Philharmonie. They performed Mozart’s Symphony No 25 in G minor KV183 and his Symphony No 40 in G minor, KV550 and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with pianist Kirill Gerstein.